"WASHINGTON — Elijah Zarlin was handcuffed outside the White House two years ago for joining in weeks of protests against the Keystone XL pipeline. His arrest would have been an ordinary rite of Washington, except for one thing: Mr. Zarlin had been an aide at the headquarters of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign."

"'I certainly never thought when I was working in Chicago in 2008 that I was going to have to go to the White House in 2011 to get arrested,' said Mr. Zarlin, 33, now a senior campaign manager for Credo Action, a liberal advocacy group.

Mr. Zarlin is one of more than 150 Obama campaign alumni who are pushing the president to reject the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry millions of gallons of crude oil from Alberta in Canada to American refineries on the Gulf Coast. Mr. Obama has sent mixed signals on his decision, due in the next months, but many environmentalists expect him to approve the pipeline."